CREATIVE EXORCISM
The World doesn’t want you to make Art.
News flash: Abortion rates of creative ideas are at all-time high.
At Thanksgiving dinners, everyone is always so proud of you. “You’ve always been the smart one. You always make good choices. You’ll be fine, even when the economy is not.”
The fancy silk napkins mask the terror.
You know it’s all for show.
Behind the curtain is a life half-lived.
Back-to-back Teams calls where nothing (or on good days, barely anything) gets done.
A mortgage that staples your tongue to the back of your teeth when your boss says something stupid.
The incessant “When is AI gonna replace us?” water cooler conversation. As if seeing that 500 times a day on social media isn’t enough.
You watch the year coming to a close. Another year of staring blankly at an old Dell laptop. The company’s stock prices keep going up, but for some mysterious reason they can’t even shell out $495 to replace your computer.
Another year of wondering when you can finally move out of the city.
Waking up to birdsong. Slowly sipping your morning coffee. Black, as always.
An alternate reality where each morning, a poem descends. No struggles. Dropped gently like a gift from Aphrodite herself.
“But not today,” you tell yourself.
“One day…”
Then, tomorrow: “One day…”
Then, a year from now: “One day…”
The creative process inspires awe and induces terror.
Why is it so hard to take the leap?
Father warned you.
“Artists always lose their minds. Remember what happened to Van Gogh? He chopped off his own ears, for God’s sake.”
But you were young. You knew who you were. You knew where you were going.
Most importantly, you knew who you were meant to become.
So you did it anyway. You chose to pursue the artist path.
You could’ve gone the pre-med route. You consistently scored the highest in AP Biology. But that wasn’t where your heart was.
The dream life quickly turned into a pressure cooker.
Mediocrity had no place. Not when you have everything to prove.
Eager to learn. Hungry to please. Stopped at nothing.
You took it all in. Practiced the craft for hours on end. Read all the books.
One day, out of nowhere, the river ran dry.
What was once your raison d’etre has now become the worst nightmare you didn’t even anticipate.
There was no hate. No disgust. No pain.
There was…
N o t h i n g.
You know what hurts most than quitting your passion?
Your passion quitting you.
You thought to yourself.
“Maybe Father was right.”
Everyone talks about the fire of passion. No one prepares you to sit with the ashes.
How do you be the fire, without turning into roast lamb?
Let me interrupt the poetry. Here’s a summary.
As a child, you’ve always known you were an artist.
But people kept telling you, “Oh, that’s a hard life.” So, at some point you got scared.
You grew into an adult who tried doing everything right.
But something inside you insists, “Nope. This isn’t it, either.”
Now, you’re seeking the secret sauce.
The middle way.
The truth.
The only way out (is in).
I wish to be gentle. To cradle your head on my lap. To comfort your weary heart.
But first, I must be honest. For the truth will set you free.
Creativity that can be taught is not real creativity.
Artists are created not through instructions doled out in conservatories, art schools, or internships.
But through choosing to plunge into The Void.
Artists give birth to themselves by piercing through illusions.
Society confuses proficiency for creativity. Achievement for talent. Applause for resonance.
Your Inner Artist will resist.
She knows that the magic formula does not exist.
You cannot catch a butterfly without tearing her wings.
Teachers. Institutions. Practices. These are portals, not The Way itself.
There’s no shortcut to kneeling at the temple of the empty page.
Creative Exorcism: A Quest for The Holy Grail.
So, what is The Way?
~
Art is not confined to museums, concert halls, or even the cinema.
Art is not about creating masterpieces and becoming a ‘legend.’
Art is the practice of conscious creation.
~
Art whispers:
Make anything you want.
An oil painting or a home to belong to.
A rap album or a spiritual business.
An erotic novel or a pumpkin pie recipe.
But make it with intention, sincerity, and truth.
~
There’s a tiny seed inside of you and you alone.
The instruction manual is simple: Listen to me. I’ll tell you who I am.
CREATIVE EXORCISM IS:
A training to loosen the pressure to come up with ‘greatness.’
Without extinguishing the intense flame of your spirit.An opportunity to listen closely to the spirit of the creation.
To the steady hum beyond the cacophony of learned, programmed fears.An initiation into discipleship with the creative process itself.
Free from artificial divisions between art, life, and consciousness.
I will not decide what you get out of the training. I will not steal the struggle.
What I can promise, instead, is to hand you the keys so you can explore. A gentle, firm prodding towards the questions:
Who do I become when I practice conscious creation?
What can I let go of?
How can I support myself so that questions like “What the heck am I making” and “Why is this not working” stop becoming obstacles, and start becoming The Way instead?
~
The work isn’t to try to create greatness.
In any case, the best things in life are immune to reverse-engineering.
The work is to rebuild a robust ecosystem that the butterflies of inspiration will choose to turn into their birthplace, sanctuary, and cemetery.
The ROADMAP.
Creative Exorcism will run for 12 weeks, from October 31st, 2026 to January 31st, 2027.
All calls are recorded on Zoom.
Initiation Call: We begin on Saturday, October 31st (Halloween / Samhain) at 10 - 11:30 AM EST with a live initiation to set intentions and co-create a communal space.
Audio Lessons: Starting November 1st, you’ll receive 60 audio lessons (5-15 minutes) exploring the philosophy and the practice of tending to creative process.
Topics explored include:
What does it means to be an artist?
How do we build a healthy relationship with the creative force?
Common distortions artists face, and which one dominates your experience.
How do we stoke the fire of creative momentum?
How might we benefit from building a sturdy, flexible creative vessel?
Four phases of the creative process – and how to move dynamically between them and minimize stuckness.
I recommend doing one lesson a day, while honoring natural breaks and pauses.
We’ll also witness each other’s process by leaving comments on the course portal.
Communal Cocoons: Every two weeks, we gather on Zoom for 90 minutes for Communal Cocoons. These calls are opportunities to practice being present with the tension of the creative process. Not only yours, but others as well. The creative process always wants to lead us somewhere – even if (especially if) it’s not where we think we want to go. We’ll practice listening deeply without trying to force solutions.
We meet on Sundays at 10 - 11:30 AM EST. Call dates are:
November 8th
November 22nd
December 6th
December 20th
January 3rd
January 17th
Recorded Q&A: In between calls, you can submit questions. I’ll record an audio response. This offers space to listen and digest at your own pace.
Completion Call: We’ll close by gathering one final time on Sunday, January 31st at 10 - 11:30 AM EST.
Optional Private Mentorship: This adds personalized support (in addition to the course) for those who are at a crucial threshold of ideating, creating, or releasing a potent offering. We meet 1:1 for 60 minutes every 2 weeks to refine ideas, dissect the process, and lean into creative tension. Limited to 3 participants.
If you’re interested, send me an email at jonathanjka@gmail.com. Include a brief description on what you’d like to work on and how I can support you.
WHAT YOU’LL RECEIVE:
12 weeks of creative support.
8 × 90 min. live calls.
60 audio lessons (5-15 mins) on tending to the creative process.
3+ rounds of recorded Q+A.
a container limited to 30 participants to preserve intimacy.
optional private mentorship (inquire by email).
ABOUT ME
For as long as I can remember, I’ve never doubted why I came to earth.
To be an artist.
But it’s taken decades of trial and error to understand what that really means.
Born as a porous Pisces Sun + Mercury, I struggled with my default instinct: To automatically absorb everyone else’s psychic info. Opinions, judgments, fears, ideas.
Visions came in clear. But they quickly got muddied.
Will my teacher / the audience / my parents get this?
If they don’t, am I still allowed to make it?
Is this work even good? Good according to whose standards?
I kept pursuing artmaking in the ways I knew how. More classes. More lessons. More practice.
In my late 20s, the pressure got too intense. My system shut down and I stopped hearing the muse.
In silence, a new chapter began.
I learned to go inwards. To trust what wants to come through me – even if it didn’t make sense. To ask “Why not?” instead of “Why?”
Then I realized: This is who I’ve always been.
I’m a listener.
My creative practice is about listening to the space. Between notes. Words. Places. Planets. People.
Between worlds.
A pattern always emerges.
And I get to enjoy the ride.
FAQ
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Saturday, October 31st, 2026 at 11:59 PM PST.
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No. Anyone who wants to cultivate a deeper relationship with their creative spirit is welcome to join.
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All calls are at 10 - 11:30 AM EST.
Saturday, October 31st
Sunday, November 8th
Sunday, November 22nd
Sunday, December 6th
Sunday, December 20th
Sunday, January 3rd
Sunday, January 17th
Sunday, January 31st
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In addition to the live calls, you’re encouraged to spend 15-30 minutes a day on a creative practice of your choice.
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Send me an email at jonathanjka@gmail.com with more information on what you’d like to work on and why you think I can help. We’ll discuss further based on your circumstances.